persisted in the Babylonian world. Walther Sallaberger explains the workings of the
two most important Babylonian institutions, the palace and the temple. Both
functioned as centres of economic activities, owning and exploiting large tracts of
agricultural land, and significant sectors of the population depended on them for their
survival. They competed for resources but played complementary roles in society.
Gebhard Selz focuses on the mechanisms that underpinned the exercise of power in
Babylonia. He underlines the ideological remit of royal inscriptions that are all too
often taken as ‘straight’ historical data, and the importance of the economic as well
as social equilibrium that a successful ruler had to maintain. Mario Fales takes a
close look at two of the most prominent ethnic groups, the Arameans and Chaldeans,
during the first millennium BCand sets their social history within their particular
environmental frameworks. Both joined in the efforts to eliminate Assyrian control
of Babylonia, with the Chaldeans in particular bearing the brunt of Assyrian retaliation
as well as reaping the rewards by assuming control of the country themselves. The
Arameans seemed to have been less united and culturally defined but made a lasting
impact on the whole of the Ancient Near East since their language and writing system
became the most important vehicle of communication for centuries after the demise
of Assyria and Babylonia. Laura Steele’s chapter concerns the role of women and gender.
It draws particularly on law codes, letters and legal documents. Steele discusses the
possibilities and constraints of different classes of women: of free married and eligible
upper-class women, of unmarried but free women (such as widows, priestesses and
‘prostitutes’), and those who served as slaves.
The conservatism of Mesopotamian culture applies in particular to religion, which
is the subject of Part V. Temples lasted for millennia, permanent landmarks of the
cities. Lexical tablets from the beginning of writing testify to the antiquity of divine
names. However, some deities figure more prominently in myths and rituals than
others, some have therefore more personality than others. Brigitte Groneberg, following
Laura Steele’s chapter with a discussion of the role of goddesses in Mesopotamia,
examines how the divine world was not exempt from issues of gender. Her case-study
is the city of Nippur during the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur, which is particularly
rich in cuneiform sources. She shows not only how the various female deities display
different functions, such as healing and protection, but that their cult and personnel
were subject to political developments, as well as changes in preference. Joan Goodnick
Westenholz concentrates on one particular deity, Inanna/Ishtar, the most colourful
divine personalities of the Mesopotamian pantheon. She combines contradictory aspects
of character: warlike and compassionate, the seductive embodiment of sexual desire
and the regal queen of heaven. Westenholz argues that such mutability was a
consequence of the astral dimorphism of the planet Venus, Inanna/Ishtar’s celestial
embodiment. The prime god of the Babylonians, Marduk, later simply known as Bel,
was closely associated with the city of Babylon. Takayoshi Oshima traces his rise, as
well as the various kidnappings of the god’s statue; Marduk’s eventual triumph,
elaborated in the famous Epic of Creation, was perhaps the more resounding. His
cult endured well into the Hellenistic period. The Babylonians did not just rely on
placating the mighty gods with prayers and sacrifices. They attempted nothing less
than a coherent early warning system that would decode the hidden messages sent
by the gods about their intentions. Stefan M. Maul takes on the arcane and thorny
subject of Babylonian divination. Babylonians were acutely conscious of the porosity
— Introduction —